August 17, 2018 -- As the municipal elections taking place across the GTA on October 22 fast approach, TREB is working with the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) to pressure election candidates to support effective housing policy choices.BILD represents nearly 1,500 residential and commercial building, land development and professional renovation industry members in the Greater Toronto Area.It is no secret that the GTA is experiencing an ongoing shortage of housing supply. A combination of factors, including the impact of government regulations and policies, is also slowing the pace of construction of new homes and having a negative impact on supply and affordability. Compared to all other levels of government, municipalities have the most direct influence over where new housing will go, what type it will be, the number of homes built and pace of building. On October 22, municipal elections will be held across the GTA. As part of this year's elections, BILD is running a non-partisan campaign across all the municipalities of the GTA to highlight the importance of policies and actions that can increase housing supply and have a positive impact on affordability. TREB will also be launching a similar campaign shortly.You can show your support on this important issue and help make the 2018 GTA municipal elections the "housing elections." Together we can lay the groundwork for effective housing policy and choices with future municipal councils. Take a minute to learn more about the BILD campaign here.You can also show your support for the BILD campaign by taking one (or all) of the following actions below:Step 1Take two minutes and send an email to your candidates for municipal council and mayor.

In the 32 years since Promenade Mall opened on Bathurst Street in Vaughan, north of Toronto’s city limit, both the retail landscape and demand for suburban land has changed. The 2017 departure of bankrupt anchor tenant Sears, which occupied almost 20% of the mall’s space, was a further blow to the mall’s already declining traffic. Now, a redevelopment proposal looks to create an architectural centrepiece, while making the mall both less auto-centric and more transit and pedestrian-oriented, and introducing significant new residential density steps from the revitalized shopping centre.Shortly before Sears' bankruptcy filing, the property was acquired by Liberty Development, who are now advancing redevelopment plans. The Phase 1 Plan that was just submitted to the City of Vaughan contemplates modernization and expansion of the existing mall, physical improvements for existing retail tenants, and an increase in the number of potential shoppers. While some of this intensification is proposed through alterations to the existing mall, the bulk of the changes would involve building out of the sea of surface parking that currently encircles the property.Designed by WZMH Architects, the first phase of the plan includes three residential apartment towers with heights of 28, 30, and 35 storeys, as well as a 28-storey, mixed-use building containing offices and a hotel, with a combined gross floor area of 144,613 square metres. The first phase would involve the demolition of 18,756 square metres of existing 89,479 square metres of space space in the south and east portions of the mall, while adding 15,773 square metres of new retail space.The three proposed residential towers would contain a total of 1,066 units. The first two would respectively rise 35 and 30 storeys from a shared six-storey podium occupying the current footprint of the former Sears space. Their proposed total unit count is 748, including 363 one-bedroom units, 337 two-bedroom units, and 48 three-bedroom units. To the north of the existing mall entrance, the third residential tower is proposed to rise 28 storeys and contain 318 residential units, including 265 one-bedroom units and 53 two-bedroom units. The combined hotel and office building, would house 24,392 square metres of office uses and 15,203 square metres of hotel space, spread across 156 suites.Significant public realm improvements are also on tap for the site. Landscape architects Schollen & Company have devised a plan that creates a pedestrian-friendly gateway plaza to the site's Bathurst Street frontage, an outdoor amphitheatre at the west end of the property, and a pedestrianized north-south High Street fronted by commercial uses.

As Torontonians tally flood damage triggered by Tuesday’s rainstorm, a city official says such increasingly frequent deluges will beat a drainage system with pipes more than a century old.

“The numbers we’re talking about in terms of rainfall were absolutely astronomical in a very short period of time,” Frank Quarisa, acting general manager for Toronto Water, told the Star Thursday.

Workers clear drains along a stormwater channel near Wilson Ave. and Jane St. in the wake of Tuesday’s flash flood.

“We’re talking about overland flooding--water that didn’t even make its way to the sewers in many cases and eventually it made it to the storm sewers after having flooded out street areas ...

“We’re talking rainfall levels in these core areas of the city far in excess of what any kind of infrastructure that we have in the ground, or even the road infrastructure, can handle.”

The intense storm forced occupants of a floating car to swim for safety, trapped men in an elevator with water rising to their necks until swimming police officers rescued them, turned condo parking lots into raging rivers and sent streetcar passengers paddling out through sewage-laden runoff.

The city does fix failing infrastructure, but replacing--as a precaution--pipes as old as 120 years buried deep beneath busy streets is “huge in terms of dollar value and disruption,” Quarisa said, so “you have to come up with adaptive measures to get around it, ways to deal with that storm water that makes its way to the sewers.”

Most of Toronto’s sewers are combined, meaning in heavy rainfall runoff mixes with sewage from homes and businesses, and often spills into waterways or backs up into basements.

The “adaptive” measures include Toronto’s wet weather flow master plan, to improve water quality along shorelines; a subsidy program offering up to $3,400 per home to cover most of the cost of specified basement floodproofing devices; and fees for businesses discharging heavily polluted water.

During a Wednesday re-election campaign stop, Mayor John Tory touted his administration’s record on flood-proofing projects, saying efforts totalling hundreds of millions of dollars are “robust” enough to deal with increasingly intense storms as the climate changes.

No project “has been slowed down or delayed or postponed or cancelled or not proceeded with because of lack of money,” Tory told reporters.

His administration’s critics on Toronto council have, however, pushed in vain during Tory’s mayoral tenure, and Rob Ford’s before him, to accelerate the programs, and to establish a new stormwater fee on homes and businesses with large hard surfaces causing excess runoff.

“If we are going to be prepared for the ongoing extreme weather events that come with climate changes, the basement flood program has to be expedited,” along with efforts to decrease shoreline pollution from overflowing sewers, said Councillor Janet Davis.

Her efforts to accelerate the wet weather flow master plan by eight years â€”one option presented by city staff--and to roll out more quickly the basement flooding protection program have failed to get majority support.

Last year council, with Tory’s support. shelved a city staff recommendation to develop a stormwater fee, like those charged by Mississauga and other Ontario cities, paid by property owners with the largest hard surfaces, generating the most runoff.

While Tory noted the fee would not have increased total revenue, Layton said it would have created an incentive for large mall operators and developers to “tear up pavement and put back vegetation” to reduce runoff--an incentive absent now when water usage determines their fees.

Advocates also say a stormwater fee--branded a “roof tax” by Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti and then-former councillor Doug Ford, who is now premier--could have been fine-tuned to ensure fairness before being hiked in future years to boost revenues to flood-proof Toronto.

“We’re not saying we won’t have floods, but the reality is the more storm water we can keep out of the sewer, the better for everyone,” Layton said.

Councillor Jaye Robinson, Tory’s appointed public works chair, was not available for an interview but said in a statement: “The City of Toronto has a fully funded, comprehensive storm water management system,” and Toronto Water’s 10-year capital plan dedicates more than $3 billion to be spent on storm water management by 2026, including roughly $1.55 billion on the basement flooding protection program.

“Over the last three years, the city has spent over $295 million on storm water management. Improving the City of Toronto’s resiliency to extreme weather events remains a top priority at city hall.”

MoneySense magazine has ranked King Township as the best place to live in York Region, and 18th of best places to live in Canada in 2018.The magazine, cites the township’s diverse demographics, wealth and economy, and arts and community as the main reasons for placing the township on the top of the list in York Region.King also beats last year's winner in York Region, Aurora.“I’m absolutely ecstatic and proud,” said King Township Mayor Steve Pellegrini. “I think King has been flying under the radar for many years.”Newmarket named best place to live in York Region, 23rd in CanadaKing Township, often referred to as a “community of communities,” is known for its idyllic countryside and community lifestyles.With a population of 26,697, King stands out in many areas in York Region.“It has so much to offer,” Pellegrini said. “We have many parks and trails, award-winning facilities and many restaurants.”The average household income in King stood at around $191,000, and the average value of primary real estate was close to $1.5 million, according to MoneySense.This year, King moved up by 50 places, from being the 68th best place to live in Canada in 2017.Most of the other places in York Region have also improved their rankings on the list this year.MoneySense ranks Newmarket 23rd of best places to live in the country this year, owing to its health-care accessibility, demographics, as well as wealth. It ranked 56th last year.While Aurora is no longer the best place to live in York Region, it ranks 36th in Canada this year, only one place behind Markham.Richmond Hill is also among the top places on the list, ranking 37th this year. Another good place to live in York Region is Whitchurch-Stouffville, which ranked 48th.Meanwhile, two other places in York Region rank relatively low on the list: East Gwillimbury, at 82nd, and Georgina, at 133rd.The MoneySense annual ranking measured 415 cities across Canada in 10 categories this year: wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, commute, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities and culture.Visit the MoneySense website for more information.